RF EYE-D -- Aram Bauman and MsManhattan

Obviously a lot of work into this. Each frame shows it. The score was great, the FX were great (although over used - I agree with the fire background and the sword - BAM he's behind him. What? - and also the clouds near the end loop). But overall it was a great flick. Very entertaining and well made. Good luck! :)
 
guskersthecat said:
Ok Aram. Now I understand why you needed some sleep. I see Adina is not just a DOF model :) You guys did some serious work here.
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Thanks. Yeah running home after work everyday and staying up all night for 3 weeks was beating the crap out of me. Not everyone can stay home and work on their films all day for 3 months.

Yeah D, not everyone will get it. Its a certain genre where you have to like cartoons to watch them. Flames, crazy background fx, weird angles are all part of the style. They all have a sword in there somewhere. He gets behind him in the spin move to get close enough to cut. THe clouds were a last minute attempt to makeit seem like something has changed. I faded them to the lighter part.

I wish i had more time to do it like i wanted. Check out "Final Fantasy:the advent child" Thats the level i wanted to go but as you can see it would take about 6 months to a year of planning. That fight scene was super condensed and really didnt do any justice to the genre. When we revisit the full length though, your comments will be kept in mind as will all others.

Im glad you like the score. She literally did it in 2 days, if we would have known we could have submitted after the films were up I would have given her more time and imagine what she would have done. Justin made a back up track the night before just in case things fell through (since the first experience, i didnt want to leave it to chance) fully understanding hers would go first. I wound up using his tracks for the opening and the fight scene to change it up some.

Steph and Justin, thanks again for making the score happen. I was soo stressed when Leo said he couldnt finish, I thought my head was going to explode. :violent5:

Alex: I can see where it gets confusing. The shopping and mother scene were supposed to be flash backs he was having at the time where he was being defeated. They were like his way of conjuring up his last bit of strength to get out of the situation. So thats why they run in that order. THe shopping scene actually had to play 2 rolls. That i just mentioned, and to establish a totalitarian regime over the people.

Thanks Timur. You did a great job on that commercial we shot this weekend.
He told me that the footage was way above the level of expectations and was really happy. Thanks again.
 
Well, I've watched over every film again, and I've gotta say, this one stood out... deep story... great FX, decent acting... it is sure to be in my top 3... great job!
 
I loved it Aram and Leslie. I simply rate films on my enjoyment of them. This one I very much enjoyed. It kept me completely interested all the way through. And on top of that, you actually had super heroes in your film, ala Hero-Fest. Great job. I can't wait to see more films from you both.

David
 
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This was a very good film. I liked the build and the world's dark mythology you developed. It was a bit like revelations, mark of the beast, or a very biblical storyline. I also picked up influences from Sin City, anime, and video games.

In my film I tried to push my visual effects as much as I could. I don't have very much experience with AE. This film really showed me what might be possible for me in the future if I stick with it.

One thing that I didn't like much was the mother's performance. It felt a little bit like she was reading cue cards or just reciting her lines without much emotional thought. Once she started talking to the hero directly the performance became much better.

I loved the environments you used. The rolling skies, the city skylines, the statue etc. were all a very heightened reality. It didn't seem like a DVX movie at times. It seemed beyond that cold DV world that a lot of films fell victim to.

I really liked how the hero moved in the end when he finished off the foe.

Thanks for making this film. It was a pleasure to watch.
 
MsManhattan said:
... and you never have to apologize for your opinion, at least some of which I would agree with you on. But, we don't derive our entire identity and sense of self from what's said on this board, and in fact, we feel the discourse here makes us better at what we are trying to do. Thanks for weighing in!
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Class personified. Awesome.

Aram Bauman said:
... Yeah D, not everyone will get it. Its a certain genre where you have to like cartoons to watch them. Flames, crazy background fx, weird angles are all part of the style. They all have a sword in there somewhere...
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Thanks Aram. Classy classy classy.

And I went to see if I could rent some anime to find out what it's all about, but all they gave me was a hot water bottle and a tube. Looking for further instructions now.

And the guy who rented the stuff to me seemed to think it was somehow appropriate ...

Weird.
 
Just got done watching this one for the first time.

Pros - Great story line - This is something I can see being made into a feature film. I loved the concept, it raises some good questions about the future, and even some end time prophecy if you are interested in that subject.
Some great SFX shots. I liked the dude in the crater after he landed, very anime and very clever. Awesome locations used as well.

Cons - A few of the SFX shots didn't work for me, mostly the backgrounds with the fire and the fast moving clouds. Some of the colors and camera work seemed to not mesh 100%.

Overall - A great movie. I honestly enjoyed watching it and can totally see its potenital to become a feature. Congratulations!
 
Hey, everyone, thanks so much for all of your comments! We really appreciate them all.

Noct, I thought your film looked awesome. I was so surprised to read about all the hiking and equipment lugging and acting you did all on your own. It certainly didn't look like the product of a one-man band. Re: using AE, I'm sure Aram would be willing to answer any questions, so feel free to PM him -- he used a wide variety of software for the SFX and is probably chomping at the bit to talk about it more. ;)

David, I'm right there with ya -- how much you enjoy a film is key so I consider that high praise. Thanks so much! I feel the exact same way about Sonic Man.

Miata, it always makes my day when someone mentions the story, so... you made my day! I will be posting, at some point when I have more time, some more info on how the story came together.

And, Briceman, you're always so supportive, and we always appreciate what you have to say. Top three in a contest that I feel has so many high-quality entries... well, we're honored.

Thanks again to everyone who has viewed the film and to those of you who have posted here. We're just so grateful to be be able to make these films. Seriously, we're in our 40s and both making a career transition that would have been impossible even just five or six years ago when you couldn't have gotten such a high-quality camera at such a low price point. I don't mean to wax too poetic, but the DVX really brings power to the people in the same way that PCs and the Internet have democratized the availability of information and the opportunity to express yourself. So, we just consider ourselves damned lucky!
 
Yes thank you all for watching and taking the time to post.
D-check out some of the dragonball z joints. They go over the top with the crazy effects and fight scenes. This is where i was drawing alot of the ideas that never made it in the film. The only live action Anime type films i know of is Casshern:
http://www.apple.com/jp/quicktime/trailers/casshern_large.html
and Zu warriors:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/zu_warriors.html

and hopefully when we finish our next version ours will be added to that list. :)

It would be cool to assemble a full crew from the the boards to do it and make history too.
 
guys frickin amazing to look at
the FX were really good
I know with a team of one you don't / can't go for photo real so you do a consistent stylization, and that works well here. But I just wanted to clarify because I think the FX are really over the top great in another way besides being being believeable withing the vocabulary of the piece.

they're just ****ing beautiful.
The pallete, the composition -- who cares if they were done with a paintbrush on a canvas or with pixels.

Again teh colors chosena and the way they work together and the images you made from all that --- just awesome.

I liked the context of the story and it was clear enough but didn't feel one scene was leading to the next by setting up story questions and relationship issues or questions that we would want to keep watching to have resovled. More just an A to B to C layout of the plot and the world.

Only a small ding other than that and that was the lighting on Olvia's face wen she falls .... but I know that would be hard top deal with ... not sure if you could get a good bounce in there with all the foilage.

Good job guys. Again looked amazing beyond the context of the image being SFX ... it could have been Metropolis or something in the way that it had its own unique look.

Aram it might not be reasonable in terms of the man hours but I would love to see you do something almost like Tron - not that story but something that gives you an excuse to kind of make the whole world that the poeople run around in. Who knows Horror fest is 4 months away. Although if these contests become cyclical and Sci Fest is repeated, then it might be better for that since part of horror working is contingent on making it feel like it could happen to us in our world and sci fi deals with taking us to another world.

Again great use of color and composition.
 
Thanks Jack, that whole scene with the running and shopping I wanted super saturated colors but it came at the expense of those shots. I was more focusing on the orange to get it to pop. I was going to try to rotoscope but I saved it to the last minute and wound up just throwing some CC on it. Everyone I showed the roughs said the raw looked much better which I agree with. Oh well, I pushed that render button too soon. The DVD version actually reads much better but it also shows all the mistakes in the rushed green screen pulls.
 
Aram Bauman said:
Thanks Jack, that whole scene with the running and shopping I wanted super saturated colors but it came at the expense of those shots. I was more focusing on the orange to get it to pop. I was going to try to rotoscope but I saved it to the last minute and wound up just throwing some CC on it. Everyone I showed the roughs said the raw looked much better which I agree with. Oh well, I pushed that render button too soon. The DVD version actually reads much better but it also shows all the mistakes in the rushed green screen pulls.
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yeah but just the contrast of the oranges and greens and stuff in the super rays and forcefields is very original and looks great
 
Thanks, thats what I was looking for in colors. I went back to my art school teachings to form the pallete of colors. I really wanted the fruit stand area to pop with all the colors but that was a total gorilla shot in pathmark and they have cameras all over in the ceilings so i had to hide the camera under a jacket and hoped that they didnt see her putting the oranges in her pockets.
 
Actually, that Pathmark shoot makes a decent case study in guerilla shooting.

We knew we needed to shoot there because we had to have shots of a flatbed barcode scanner -- like the ones they have at self-checkout aisles. That store was one of the few we knew of in Brooklyn that had those. So, Aram and I went in there late one Friday night (it's open 24 hours), and I was saying, "OK, just shoot it -- just get a wide shot and a close-up of the POS terminal and scanner, and we'll green-screen the wrist swipe later."

But, he thought it would be best if we secured permission from a manager, so we took the high road, tracked down the overnight manager, and I gave him a whole shpiel about how we were doing a news story for an IT Web site on technology in our day-to-day lives, and we just wanted to shoot the terminal, and we wouldn't show the Pathmark brand name, etc etc. And, he was a wus, and said he didn't have the authority to give us permission.

So, two weeks later we go back, in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday -- surely the busiest day of the week in a grocery store -- and shot the whole thing in plain view with either a sales circular or a jacket over the camera -- and no one said a word. Olivia put oranges in her pockets, and no one said anything -- and she looked like such a street urchin in those clothes... We were at that self-checkout terminal for at least 10 minutes, shooting away, with a store manager (probably an assistant-assistant manager...) watching us the whole time, and he just couldn't give a rip. And we shot at those sliding doors by the Dunkin Donuts for at least 20 minutes -- we would have to wait between takes until no one was coming in or going out, then shoot the scene, then wait again, then reshoot from a different angle. I think we did that about 10 times to make sure we had something that would read the way it was written in the script...

So, lesson learned: Sometimes it doesn't pay to take the high road and get permission...

Although, if we wanted to enter this in any festivals, we would definitely have a problem with some of the store logos that show...
 
All that hard-work and headache I'd say was well worth it, look what you guys have now.

I had a similar issue with a chain grocery store around my area, I wanted to shoot a scene in a cereal aisle, so I went to the big dog, and explain.. blah blah blah.. he said no, so what I did was, I rewrote the script and had my character coming out of the Supermarket, it really wasn't vital to have him in there so that worked out.. but in RF EYE-D it was vital to shoot inside the supermarket.. so rewriting the script probably wasn't an option...

Great Guerilla work! Let me ask you guys a question, that scene when she's running out and we see the big Lowes sign in the back, did you guys pourposely set the camera at that angle so we wouldn't see the "S" or was it by accident?

Eventhough everybody recognizes that was a Lowes, technically it didn't say "Lowes" it said "Lowe" LOL
 
capitalP said:
Great Guerilla work! Let me ask you guys a question, that scene when she's running out and we see the big Lowes sign in the back, did you guys pourposely set the camera at that angle so we wouldn't see the "S" or was it by accident?

Eventhough everybody recognizes that was a Lowes, technically it didn't say "Lowes" it said "Lowe" LOL
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That was intentional -- Aram's creative framing to avoid the brandname/trademark issue, but like you said, it's still recognizeable, basically, so whether we could get away with it is a fuzzy issue...
 
Plus i can change it out if i had to. I did that to hide the "s" and give perspective to the shot. if you notice a lot of the shots have this in it. There are a lot of horizon lines sweeping the frame.
 
cheeky monkey you are aram. sneaking in corporate symbolism....

I started drawing again. horror fest may be part animation.....
 
Boy you guys put some time into this. Great job. When I first watched it the fx blew me away. The wide shot forcing into the beam was...well you know...I'm gonna nick that in a few years when all the fuss has died down :)
Well done. You know the only thing I didn't like was the Mother in the church scene...looked fantastic though...not the mother...I think I've been watching too many of these films now...
Guys A1.
Jp
 
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